2011-08-30 07:08:00
06:39:13 I leave Amstel station to head to the office.
06:39:54 I start the Luka Megurine song 'Wild Joker', one of my favourite running songs.
06:39:56 I set off in a sprint.
06:40:04 I almost keel over in pain ^_^
Wow man, that was harsh. That'll teach me not to run without properly warming up and not to force myself into top speed unless I have to (like last Friday, but that's another story). My legs were already feeling tired when I woke up, but I figured I'd just push through it and have some exercise. But not ten seconds into my run a stabbing pain rips through the quadriceps in my left thigh. I didn't feel any popping or tearing, so I can only hope I didn't actually tear a muscle. Instead, let's just hope I sprained it and that it'll properly heal with a few days rest. Next saturday is the season's first kendo class, so I really don't want to miss out on it!
kilala.nl tags: sports, running,
View or add comments (curr. 0)
2011-08-23 18:54:00
Dana loves puzzles. She's got the "Raad eens hoeveel ik van je hou" ("Guess how much i love you") puzzle book, with six 12-piece puzzles in it, which she really enjoys. And we recently bought her a box of four Hello Kitty puzzles in 12, 16, 20 and 25 pieces. Tonight she managed to do the 25-piece one without any help two times.
Time to get her more puzzles! :D
kilala.nl tags: baby, awesome,
View or add comments (curr. 3)
2011-08-22 21:11:00
In less than a month's time Marli has managed to get Dana properly potty trained! Woohoo! A bit before my last post on this subject Marli'd introduced the potty and had started getting Dana used to it. Things then quickly progressed from being forced to frequently sit down, to learning what it feels like to have a full bladder, to learning the proper timing for a quick pee and such. Current status: the potty has disappeared from the living room and Dana uses the normal lavatory. She'll simply announce her need to use the bathroom, walk over, push her stepladder in place, disrode and do her thing. She hasn't had one accident in the car, while shopping or doing anything outside the house. I'm very proud of my two ladies!
Dana's counting's also improving and just for laughs I'm also moving her beyond ten, working our way up to thirty. Either way she's fine with counting anything put in front of her that goes up to ten items :) Nice!
Singing! Oh the singing :) Dana now sings along with mom every night, before bed. There's one song Marli sings to Dana each and every night and Dana now knows almost all the words. She will also sing along with me to the "Wonder pets" tune and I even heard her whispering along to both the opening to "Diego" and of "Timmy time".
kilala.nl tags: baby,
View or add comments (curr. 0)
2011-08-22 21:09:00
What's going on with our extended families?
Well... This week my sister's getting married to a great bloke we've all come to know as Davy (because that's his name). Recently my brother and his girlfriend Mirva announced they'd be getting married next year. And less than two weeks ago Marli and I became aunt and uncle for the first time in our lives! Her brother Peter and his wife Elke became parents of a lovely, though slightly pre-natal, boy named Mike :)
kilala.nl tags: family,
View or add comments (curr. 0)
2011-08-22 21:02:00
I love iced coffee and frappuccinos as they as so gaily called. In Japan I'll happily chug liters of the cold and sweet coffee that comes in cans (I want to make a t-shirt with the BOSS guy on it!) and I've always been a sucker for the icey, frothy, sugary crap otherwise known as a frap.
A few weeks ago I learned a little secret to making a nice frap: don't use coffee and normal ice cubes! Instead, prepare very strong coffee which has a few spoons of sugar added (so it'll dissolve properly). Then freeze this strong+sweet coffee in an ice cube tray for easy dispensal. Chuck a few cubes in a blender, add some cream or milk and let'r'rip! It'll become a lovely, frothy coffee drink.
Tonight, for a twist, I replaced the cream with Baileys. Holy crap this stuff is good! I wish summer'd last a few more months :p
kilala.nl tags: coffee, cooking,
View or add comments (curr. 1)
2011-08-18 22:38:00
As part of my self-help process to tackle my anxieties and panic attacks I'm supposed to keep a log of my fears. This will help in both understanding my thought processes and in fixing them where they are flawed.
Tonight we were discussing our upcoming trip to Japan and got to talking about my doubts. The snowball was in full effect! The train of thought went something like this.
All the while my stomach was churning more and more, physically indicating to me that I was having an anxiety episode. Marli dispelled each and every of my "what if"s with a logical and sane explanation. And she also reassured me that we have already figured out a few ways to prevent me having a real panic attack.
I'm very thankful for her help :)
kilala.nl tags: anxiety,
View or add comments (curr. 3)
2011-08-18 22:12:00
Late in 2008 I confidently wrote that "Dutch law is strict but not insane yet". Back then dutch law regarding certain pornographic materials were being applied in a way I could agree with. But I guess it's that time of the decade again, because this year it seems that the discussion regarding 18+ comic books has stirred up again. Most notably: stories depicting underage characters.
I won't go into the whole discussion over here, but the debate pivots on the question: "where does reality and the reach of the law end and where does art of fiction begin?" Obviously anything involving real children is out. Obviously! But what of 3D computer graphics? What of 2D graphics? What of drawings or comics? Or what about written fiction? Is Nabukov's Lolita now something that may land you in jail? What about erotic Harry Potter fan fiction?
Right now the dutch DA and minister Opstelten seem to be favoring an interpretation of the law that would outlaw anything of a visual nature. And then there's papers like De Pers, which sensationalize things by exclaiming that virtual CP is "methadone for pedos" (here's the PDF of the relevant pages from today's paper). One camp says that loli/shota comics are a slippery slope and will lead to child abuse, while another camp says that loli/shota keeps pederasts from abusing real kids. And another camp thinks the others are nuts and it's simply fiction, arts and comic books.
Personally I'm squarely in the third camp: fiction and drawings are fake and should fall under freedom of speech/art. If someone wants to write about Harry Potter, Ron and Professor Snape getting jiggy, then that's their prerogative. And if somebody wants to make a drawing of Seshoumaru and Inuyasha doing the Sydney Harbor Bridge* on Kagome, fine by me. If they thrown in Jaken or Rin it might get a bit creepy, but it's still up to them.
Over the years I've seen plenty of these manga and I've no interest whatsoever in kids, beyond what a normal father would have. Like Parka (a reviewer of various art books) I thoroughly enjoy a book like Takamichi's "Love Works" (link to review) for its art. The guy is a -great- artist and what he does with a computer, a tablet and some software is absolutely wonderful as far as I'm concerned.
I'm curious how things will turn out.
EDIT:
By the way, none of the images used by De Pers in their article are from X-rated manga. They are from two different high school drama series, with zero sexual content. Typical for the media :)
*: Here's a thanks to Kevin, for introducing me to that particular piece of slang :p
kilala.nl tags: manga, anime, politics,
View or add comments (curr. 2)
2011-08-18 19:18:00
I think another one of my wisdom teeth is ready for extraction. Crap.
View or add comments (curr. 1)
2011-08-18 12:52:00
While preparing our trip to Japan I was browsing the Osaka tourism website, when all of a sudden I see a familiar sight on their food page. The noodle stand pictured on the left is in one of the stations in Umeda and every time I passed it, it was as busy a pictured here. Just a bunch of guys standing around, slurping noodles :)
I'm looking forward to our holiday.
kilala.nl tags: japan,
View or add comments (curr. 1)
2011-08-17 08:24:00
In less than two weeks my darling sister will get married, so that means it's time to shop for nice clothing. Marli ordered two beautiful cocktail dresses from Igigi in the US, which suit her reall well, and I got myself a new suit from Gents in Almere. Since I've lost a lot of weight over the past few years, none of my old suits still fit me, so it had to be done.
When it came to shirts this also led to some frustration, since I'd no clue about my current size. The new suit is a 46, the shirt I tried on at Gents was way too large at 43/44. Shopping elsewhere, Marli got me the 41/42, which was still too large so we had to take it back. So yes, it now appears that I'm a 39/40. For reference, at our wedding in 2004 I wore a 41.
Speaking of weightloss and "frustration": those new Igigi dresses look really great! But we have to realize that we've quite literally bought them for the occasion. Because in half a year they'll definitely be too big for Marli :)
About sports: I never expected this, but I find it both enjoyable and motivating to work in a team (at $CLIENT) filled with martial artists and other sports enthusiasts. It's actually quite funny how many martial artists there are in IT, which by definition is a sedentary job. Out of the thirteen techies on my team there are six or seven active athletes. Four of us enjoy running, while between the lot of us we also do aikido, pencak silat, krav maga and kendo. It's strangely motivating to talk about sports.
kilala.nl tags: health, sports, body,
View or add comments (curr. 1)
2011-08-14 10:26:00
From Dilbert, of course.
View or add comments (curr. 5)
2011-08-14 00:02:00
As a young boy I loved cartoons. I still do!
In preschool I grew up with imported animation and anime, broadcast by british TV on things such as Super Channel, or Fun Factory. At the time The Transformers was one of my favourite shows and I still have a warm place in my heart for them. Well, except for that modern-day abomination of a Baysplosion -_-
I read the Marvel comics, I watched the cartoons on TV and I had plenty of the toys that Hasbro sold. My very first one was Hound, I'll never forget that. What a cool toy he was! After that came a whole lot more. Off the top of my head there were Optimus Prime (of course), Metroplex, Smokescreen (what a beauty!), Beachcomber and a few of the Aerialbots and Protectobots. Funnily I never did get any of the Decepticons. Later on in life I also fooled myself into buying a Micromasters base, but that was a pretty rotten toy :|
Anyway... I was in my first or second year of high school when the Marvel comics series came to an end. I was twelve or thirteen by the time. I'd stopped actively reading the comics, so I only got a few glimpses of the last few issues and never knew how it all ended. And it left me with questions! "Whatever happened to Megatron and Ratchet after they got merged into one body?! How did OP's surrender turn out? How did they finally beat Galvatron? Would it ever come to a real ending?"
And finally I have the answers, after getting the full series as CBR. Yes I admit that it's not a 100% decent thing to do, but I'll just tell myself that Marvel wasn't going to make any money off me after twenty years to begin with. The ending? It wasn't great, but it certainly was an ending. An open one at that. But I'm still glad that as a 32 year old dude I got to finish something that 7 year old me started :)
kilala.nl tags: geeky, childhood,
View or add comments (curr. 2)
2011-08-12 20:40:00
You can view the original sized image here on the blog of the original poster, who I can only guess is called Justin and works at Tumblr.
I simply love the photograph, that is all. What the guy's done isn't exceptional and basically the inverse of what I used to do with my iBook: use a Keyspan USB-to-DB9 to use my Mac as a serial terminal. He's done it the other way around: use a serial terminal to connect to the Mac, which is of course simply a Unix system :)
Justin's blog has a bunch of other, very cool images. Well worth a browse.
View or add comments (curr. 2)
2011-08-12 20:33:00
Woohoo! Lovely flowers, as a thank you note from Dutch railways. I recently made sure that a fellow traveler got his laptop and medicines back, after he left them on the train. I interupted my own trip and got off at Amsterdam CS to bring the Vaio and pills to lost&found. Also, thank $DEITY for frequent flyers membership cards on bags :) A quick phone call to the airline's members service and fifteen minutes later the guy was reunited with his valuables.
So there you go :) Apparently the guy was very happy and dutch railways also found out about the story.
kilala.nl tags: life,
View or add comments (curr. 1)
2011-08-08 06:24:00
Yesterday morning, right before getting Dana out of bed, I overheard her morning's singing. ^_^
"Faaast. Fast. Breakfast, breakfast, daddy breakfast.
Daddy working! Working, haha, heeeeehhh.
Bla! Bla! Blablablabla! *squeal*
Okaaaaay, FOOT!
Blablablabla...
Lala lala la lalaaaa *to the tune of "Bahbah Black Sheep"*
Bicycle. Pretty bike! Riding small bike outside!"
And so on... She went on for almost ten minutes, waiting for us to go and have breakfast :)
kilala.nl tags: baby,
View or add comments (curr. 1)
2011-08-06 23:03:00
Tonight I've started watching an anime from the current TV season. it's been lauded as one of the best shows this summer and I can understand why. The story is touching and both the artwork and the music are good. I've watched all five episodes so far and find myself wanting to rewatch them immediately.
TL,DR: Usagi Drop is a story about a 30 year old man who suddenly finds himself the guardian of a six year old girl. He finds himself balancing work, the care for this girl and his private life. As a father I find myself relating to both Daikichi (the man) and Rin (the girl) and I can't help but think how I would fare if ever, for some ungodly reason, it'd be just Dana and myself. Yes I've thought about that before, what with Marli's operation last year.
Anyway. Great show and I don't want any spoilers, so I'm not even reading the Wikipedia page :D I see that the manga's been licensed by Yen Press, so I'll later be able to get the english version. Nice :)
kilala.nl tags: anime,
View or add comments (curr. 1)
2011-08-04 10:58:00
So... Final Fantasy Tactics is out for iPhone / iOS (more background at IGN). I loved FFT Advance on my GBA, so I'd really like to play the original on my iPhone. But yeah, 13 euros for a game?! SquEnix, I've always know you were a money grubbing **** on the iOS platform, but this is really bad :( Meh...
EDIT:
Our friend Jasper rightly points out the following, followed by my reply:
Thomas Sluyter - Hahaha, you're of course right Jasper. I need to hang my head in shame. Then again, FFTA:WotL is a re-release of a re-release of a game from 1997. But yes, you're right of course. It's a great game, it has great gameplay value, so 13 euros is entirely do-able. It's just that the psychological barrier of the ten euro price point is a pretty strong one for many people on iOS.
kilala.nl tags: games, meh, apple,
View or add comments (curr. 5)
2011-08-04 05:49:00
The Netherlands, aside from Denmark and a few other countries, is famous for being a very bike-friendly country. So it's no wonder that we bought Dana her first bicycle even before her third birthday. She's getting used to it pretty quickly, though of course she much prefers mommy or daddy to push her along instead of her paddling on her own ^_^
But still, when left to her own devices she -can- actually set herself in motion :)
kilala.nl tags: baby,
View or add comments (curr. 0)
2011-08-04 05:44:00
Since getting her new EOS 1100D Marli's been trying out various things to learn how to properly use a DSLR camera. The kendo practice that Martijn and I do on a weekly basis is one of her favoured test subjects since it involves fast moving subjects. The added bonus is that many of her photographs can be used as a study-aid by myself!
Case in point... Aside from the fact that:
The photo also shows me something crucial about how badly I perform tai atari: look at my wrists! They're completely wrong! No way in heck am I going to provide proper defense, nor a push back, to Martijn. Similarly, Marli's photography also shows that my do strike is much worse than i thought it was ;_;
kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,
View or add comments (curr. 0)
2011-08-03 08:36:00
Recently George McCall posted a translation of a 1978 article on the teaching of tsuki, the kendo thrust to the throat. The article is very educational in regards to the pre- and post-war history of kendo and on how the sport has developed. It has also enticed a "Aha Erlebniss" in me with regards to the kendo term datotsu: a scored point. The article includes the following passage:
"In this way, even though we note the success of modern kendo, we must deeply consider and reflect on what its become. One example is the case where we have banned tsuki for use in children of junior high school age and below; to look at it a different way, if you consider the very basis of kendo – hitting a clear DATOTSU (打突) i.e. cutting (打) and thrusting (突) – we have removed the thrusting part (突) and as such its not an exaggeration to say what we are left with is a kendo that incomplete (deformed)."
It had never occured to me that the is litterally "da to tsu"! Hence the "Aha Erlebnis", because the kanji for the word are indeed "da" and "tsu" the "to" being implied".
Anyway... a good article, in spite of its age! I wonder how much has changed in the past 20+ years, with regards to the teaching of tsuki. Currently I'm under the impression that it's been mystified, almost to the level of the jodan no kamae. People think it's scary, it's difficult and it's dangerous. And thus it's still not taught. On the other hand, the article has made me feel better about attempting the occasional tsuki on Martijn. -Especially- when he's in jodan :p
Also, something else from the article just "clicked" with what Loyer-sensei has been trying to teach me regarding small men (bold and underline for emphasis):
"The purpose to have [young students] study tsuki is that the children should be forced to understand the following points about the importance of kihon:
*click*
kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports, japan,
View or add comments (curr. 2)
All content, with exception of "borrowed" blogpost images, or unless otherwise indicated, is copyright of Thomas Sluyter. The character Kilala the cat-demon is copyright of Rumiko Takahashi and used here without permission.